


A Mission Together

by Lilyliegh



Series: Camp Vrains AU [3]
Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe - Camp Vrains, Alternate Universe - Gods & Goddesses, Alternate Universe - Modern with Magic, Demigods, Ema is like a big sister to Aoi, Friendship, Gen, Magic-Users
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-15
Updated: 2018-08-15
Packaged: 2019-06-27 23:55:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,153
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15695973
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lilyliegh/pseuds/Lilyliegh
Summary: Aoi thrives at Camp Vrains, surrounded by duelists who can fuel and manage her competitive tendencies. But she longs to be at home with her brother too, who believes he change the mortal world so that they can be together once more. Out on a small mission with Ema, Aoi learns just why Camp Vrains might be the place for her.Based on the series Percy Jackson & the Olympians.Part of the Camp Vrains AU.





	A Mission Together

**Author's Note:**

> it's the Aoi and Ema introduction chapter! this was a suggestion by both Darky and Poyo, and i absolutely adore the friendship between Aoi and Ema. i see it as a big sister/little sister sort of thing, where Ema looks out for Aoi but is far less coddling that Akira. this chapter also gives you a little bit of information about Akira's role in the larger scheme of things.  
> please let me know if you have any questions. i'm starting to realise that i sort of drop readers into this world/au, and that some details might not be covered or answered as efficiently as i would like. at the same time, i'm also experimenting with showing not telling, so that is why answers might just appear through conversation :3 let me know how that's going too!
> 
> also i'm not sure when the next one-shot will be out. i plan on writing one more, but from August 19-31 i'll be away on vacation and won't be posting too much. but come September, i will be hard at work once more! thanks everyone for your lovely support, kudos, comments, and bookmarks! <33
> 
> as always, if you want to learn more about the Camp Vrains au, [check out these posts on my blog](https://lily-liegh.tumblr.com/tagged/camp%20vrains%20au) ^^  
> and if you would like to contribute to this series, with art or fic, please let me know and i'll make a larger collection. and of course, any ideas you have, please send them to either [me](https://lily-liegh.tumblr.com/ask) or [Darky](http://darkzorua100.tumblr.com/ask). thank you and i hope you enjoy!

_Dear Aoi,_

_How are you? How have things been at camp? Things are grand at my company: business is booming. Hayami has been such a great assistant, and she's been taking care of matters even before they reach my hands. I couldn't ask for a better team. At home, things are quieter though. Not in a good way either. It's too quiet without you, and I wonder if it's the same where you are now too. Do you get lonely? Bored?_

_I'm worried the duelists there are too dangerous and unstable, or that something might attack you and they won't protect you. I know this camp is meant to hone your skills, but I've heard demigods die out there and the camp leaders do nothing to protect them. I don't want that to happen to you. I don't want to see a letter in the mail inviting me to your funeral. So ...._

_So while I can't tell you to come home, I want to let you know that I'm looking for ways to make the mortal world safer for you. Better even. I bet you miss it here, and I want to live in a city that can handle demigods. I want you to be happy and healthy. So I'll keep you updated on my progress, all right?_

_Take care. I love you._

_Akira._

Aoi's hands shake. She wishes she could crumple the letter and throw it into a ball, but whenever she hears from her brother, whether it's good news or bad news, she can't resist reading what he says, or challenging what he tells her to do. That's her brother; someone who means the whole world to her. If he told her to leave the camp right away, she'd have her regards and opinions, but she'd still leave. He matters too much. But his ambivalence at asking her anything is what frustrates her the most. Can't he just tell her the answer?

Well ... then again, he did. Stay at camp.

She swallows thickly. Aoi likes Camp Vrains because, when she steps out those front doors, there are hundreds of demigods who will challenge her. She doesn't have to be alone with her thoughts, or exhausted at the thought of trying to duel someone when her energy will only exhaust them. Around demigods, she's a lively, charismatic girl. She stands out, she matters, and she lives. But at home, she dwindles like a butterfly with her wings cut off. She used to laze around all day waiting for her brother to return home, too afraid to face the outside world in fear that her demigod powers might activate.

She drops her hands down and clenches it in a tight fight. Competitiveness is hardly an ability, and how much danger can she truly do?

She shoves the letter under her mattress, and hears a dozen more crinkle as well. She'll deal with those letters later. In the meantime, she hurries to the bathroom and fixes her brown hair, pulling it high into twingirls and fastened with heart-shaped elastics. Her Blue Angel uniform hangs on the back of the door; she slips into the outfit like a second skin, brushing out the blue skirt, zipping up the back of the top piece. In the mirror, she adjusts her collar and ties her necktie. Then she heads back to the door and pulls on a pair of blue platform boots, almost cartoonish in their design with large, rounded toes.

Just as she smoothes out her skirts once more, the door bursts open and in pops Ema. Her face is split in a warm, sunny grin, and today her hair is up in a floppy ponytail, with her sweeping, purple and grey bangs framing her long face. Though she always smiles with her mouth closed, it looks genuine, and Aoi returns the smile.

"Made it just in time?" Ema says, and then beckons Aoi out the door of the room and into the main lobby. Originally, demigods slept in cabins, but since they now live in Link Vrains, the cityscape has given them dorm-like clusters, with a room for each demigod, and a main mess hall for them to convene in. As a child of Nike, Aoi shares her dorm cluster with Go, who she spots by the cupboards scrounging for snacks. He barely bats an eye her way.

Ema bats her lashes at her. "Are you dazed today, Blue Angel?"

Aoi blushes at the nickname. She is Blue Angel, a star Charisma Duelist and famed demigod both at dueling and acrobatics, but around demigods older than her, she feels embarrassed by the childish persona. Ema merely claps her on the shoulder and pulls her out of the lobby. Outside of the building, there are demigods milling around everywhere. It's the heat of the afternoon, and she feels like she's walked into a summer bazaar. Over her head, duelists zip by on D-Boards decorated with stickers all along the bottoms. There are duels happening on the ground too, and near her dorm cluster there are always demigods engaged in some kind of game or another.

It actually looks pretty interesting to watch ...

"For another time, Aoi," Ema says, leading her along by the shoulder.

Aoi blinks, startled from her thoughts, and follows Ema. The further they travel, the more a question builds on her tongue. "Hey ... Ema ..." She clears her throat. "Where are we going?"

"Out," Ema says, and gives her a mischievous smile. Then she laughs outright. "Don't look so startled, silly. We're going to look for demigods. Orders are orders."

Oh. That's right. Aoi has heard of Ema's line of work before. While Jin and Kusanagi are the ones who pick up the demigods and bring them to Camp Vrains, they don't learn about the demigods' locations from their own research; instead, Ema gives it to them. She conducts her own private investigation, monitoring newspapers and hacking into e-mails and personal devices to learn about youth who are misbehaving or conducting themselves poorly. Then she investigates them to determine whether or not it's a case of a demigod or not.

"But then ..."

Ema skips forward, tugging Aoi along. "You're coming on a trip with me."

Her mouth nearly drops to the floor. "Ema—wait, Ema, what? What do you mean?"

"Exactly what I said." She turns down a road, only it dead-ends not ten feet ahead of them. A wall stretches up towards the sky. Aoi glances towards Ema, wondering what she might do—when Ema jumps up and her D-Board materialises under her feet. She spins it around and plucks Aoi up like a small child. Aoi stumbles into Ema's arms, and before she can properly regain her balance, Ema spins her around, holds her in place, and drives the board up, up, up in the sky.

Every adrenaline bone in Aoi's body vibrates in excitement. She feels her lips pull back in a smile, and deep in her belly laughter rings out. Beneath them, the city disappears like a small speck as they rise towards the heavens. Ahead of them, Aoi sees the sky speckle and sparkle with stars, even though it's daytime and the sun is still clearly visible. Then she sees water surrounding the world, like an ocean prison. She doesn't remember how she came to Camp Vrains; she was in the back of a hotdog truck, kicking and screaming and trying to bash the walls with a pair of tongs.

When they cross through the stars and reappear on the other side, Aoi sees a city like in the storybooks she reads before bed. It's a normal city, with buildings and roads, and no dueling paths circling around the towers. There's a blue sky and fluffy clouds; they travel along the water, and under the board Aoi sees stars caught in the watery depths. Can D-Boards really drive along this path?

"Remember this?" Ema says.

Aoi shakes her head.

Ema clicks her teeth. "I keep telling those boys they need to find another, more humane strategy to bringing you kids to camp. Tell me, are you the one who set the truck on fire?"

Aoi's eyes widen and she quickly shakes her head.

"How about the kid who leapt out of the truck and they had to fish out of the water?"

Again, Aoi shakes her head. She'd been trying to do that all along, but with her flimsy, metal tongs she hadn't been able to break the lock on the door, or smash a hole through the thinnest part of the truck where the window opens.

"Well, my point still stands," Ema says, laughing under her breath. "Maybe it's nice to see this sight now though."

"Where ... is this?"

"Den City." Ema weaves the board over a crest of the waves, and then dips it up so they pass over the side of the boardwalk and onto a concrete road. Aoi looks behind her at the starry water, yet while the path looks like Stardust Road, she can't imagine crossing over that water again. Ahead of her has captured her attention: the city stretches up to the clouds with tall, silver building inlaid with jumbotrons. Instead of D-Boards, there are cars and monorails. Instead of demigods, there are mortals. Were it not for demigods' tendencies to let their power run amuck and cause havoc, there wouldn't be as many differences between mortals and demigods.

Yet even Aoi, a demigod herself, knows of the disaster she possess. Being around so many people has her itching to start something—trouble, a duel, a race. Her eyes catch every detail of the city, such as advertisements for gambling and hockey matches. Aoi knows she could beat anyone; she has the drive to do it.

Ema taps her on the shoulder. "All right, Aoi, help me out here. Here's who we're looking for." She passes forward a manila folder with several documents inside, and a photograph taped to the first page. It's a boy with dark green hair. Naoki, that's his name. He looks young and jovial too.

"Do you know where he is—"

"Page two," Ema says.

Aoi flips to the page. Ema's uncovered much more information than she would have thought capable. There are various records—school, medical, dental—as well as personal online information about his interests. She has photocopies of his grades and birth certificate, and screenshots of his online conversations on the gaming system Duel Links. How she got this information, Aoi can only assume from illegal means.

"Daddy Long Legs in his hotdog van owes me for that, by the way," Ema says. "And he's already overdue with his payments." She examines her nails the way a rich snob might look down on a dirty garment: lips curled back, eyes narrowed. But then, in the blink of an eye, she claps her hands together and swings the board to the side. "But that's all right, I know he'll give me what I want."

"What you ..."

Ema reaches ahead of her and presses a finger to Aoi's small, pink lips. "Ah, ah, ah—not for children." And before Aoi can ask after that strange statement, Ema lets out a cheer and yanks the board to the side, down a path so narrow that Aoi feels like the walls will close in around her. It triggers the adrenaline in her system, and she leans forward as they shoot through the other side of the road and out into a large, open park. Rolling hills frame the entrance, and trees puff out like verdant clouds.

"He should be here, playing with his friends," Ema says.

She slows the board down and drives it to the edge of the park. Aoi hops off when she feels it disappear beneath her feet, and she follows Ema to the park. Sure enough, Naoki is sitting on the grass with his friends around several decks.

Aoi head right towards him, swinging her arms from side to side. He looks like he wants to be a demigod.

Ema pulls her back around the tree. "Aoi," she says, in that lilting way adult talk down to young children, "our job isn't to bring Shima Naoki to Camp Vrains, but to observe whether or not he's a demigod to begin with—"

 _Crack!_ From Naoki's hands bursts a red glove. He shakes it off and the glove disappears. He and his friends all laugh it off.

Aoi raises an eyebrow. "You were saying?"

"Well, now we know. But we can't help him—"

"Why not?" Aoi steps around the side of the tree. "We know he's a demigod, so why do we have to wait for Kusanagi to come and claim him? Why not just pick him up right now?"

"Because we don't have any way to safely transport him."

"Knock him out and strap him to the back of your board."

"Trust me, sometimes I wish ..."

But Aoi doesn't hear the rest of Ema's words. She slides out from behind the tree and rubs at the wrist-cuffs of her gloves. If Ema is going to hang back and wait for Kusanagi to do her dirty work, Aoi will prove to her that they don't need a middle man. She'll capture Naoki, tie him up, and drag him across that starry road and back into Link Vrains. She doesn't have any rope, sure, but she can make do with the belt of her outfit.

"Aoi, get back here."

She swings her hips from side to side and tucks her hands behind her back. Naoki and his friends haven't even noticed her, too immersed in examining each other's cards. They haven't even lifted their heads since Aoi first saw them. It'll be a piece of cake to pick up Naoki. All she'll have to do is—

"Aoi, run!"

Above her, Aoi hears something screech: a dragon. Without even throwing up her head, she knows what great, scaled beast waits above her. Its wings flap at the ground, rustling the leaves. Naoki and his friends fall over their cards to protect them from blowing away. Quickly, Aoi rushes forward and reaches out a hand to grab Naoki's collar. She needs to get him to safety.

But when she stretches out her hand, she catches thin air as Ema swoops in and scoops her up, dragging her away from the scene. Aoi gasps and claws at Ema's arm, trying to pry her manicured nails out from the skin of her arm.

"Let me _go!"_

Ema tightens her grip.

"Stop—" As Aoi arcs her head back, she sees the dragon pursuing them. It's larger than any of the dragons she's faced in activities at Camp Vrains, or seen in videos duelists have shared around the dinner table. Its small, beady eyes stares at her, unblinking. Its maw is grizzled with scratches from centuries of tough battles. It looks hardened, and it charges at them with fierce strength.

Aoi pulls harder. "Let me at it!"

Ema dives the board down and towards Stardust Road. The nose of the boat catches in the water, spraying them from head to toe. Salt gets in her mouth, and Aoi spits to the side. The board rockets over the bumpy waves; it's no longer the smooth, gentle ride out to Camp Vrains. With each beat of the dragon's wings, the board tips from side to side like a pendulum. Every bone in Aoi's body tells her to leap off it and stab the dragon in the nose, but she can't ignore how tightly Ema clings to her arm.

When they break through the barrier into Camp Vrains, Aoi knows they're both safe. The D-Board skids through the empty air, and Ema's knees quake. Her face is drawn and waxen, and when she turns to Aoi, she clasps her tightly round her shoulders and gives her a firm shake.

"Aoi!" she says, voice pitchy. "You know what kind of danger we were in."

"We were fine," Aoi says, but Ema cuts off her next words.

"Our mission was to find Shima Naoki and confirm his status as a demigod. That was _it._ Not charge him."

"It was an accident that dragon came, I swear—"

Ema shakes her head, and her nails dig deeper into Aoi's shoulders. "We were hiding from the dragon, Aoi. It doesn't matter if we make contact with Naoki, or if he knows we're demigods. Honestly. But we cannot do our jobs running away from danger, and we're no match for a creature like that—"

"I could have taken—"

 _"No."_ Ema's words slice through the air. "There is competitiveness, and there is recklessness. You are a child of Nike, someone who his courageous and brave and strong. Someone other demigods can depend on. But." Her eyes narrow, pupils small, inky dots in her fuchsia irises. "If you are reckless, you will die."

"I—"

"You are not immortal," Ema says. "And there are people here, and out there, who care about you alive. So promise me—please—that you will not do that again."

Her throat itches. Burns. She wants to cough and look away, but if she turns her head, will she just imagine the disappointment in her brother's gaze? Ema knows about Akira too, even talks to him sometimes. And she doesn't have to bring up her brother for Ema to use that as a reason to live. Even if Ema wishes for her to be here rather than in Den City, her brother and Ema agree on one point.

"Why ... why didn't it work?" Aoi asks. "The mission ... the success ..."

"Because you were reckless." Softly, Ema runs a finger under Aoi's eyes. When she returns her hand, it's damp. Tears. Aoi sniffles as she realises she's begun to cry, and she squeezes her eyes shut to try and hold anymore back. Instead, they drip down her cheeks.

"It happens," Ema says, voice as light as a feather. "But you matter, Zaizen Aoi. And you belong. And I don't want you recklessly fixing everyone's problems while putting yourself at risk. It won't do any good. So ... promise me?" Ema smiles, and holds out her pinkie finger. She twists it from side to side as if teasing Aoi.

Aoi forces back a smile, but her cheeks glow, and she wipes away her tears and wraps her own pinkie finger around Ema's. "Promise."

"Then let's get back to camp," Ema says. She turns Aoi around, so that she can face the beautiful, glowing city of Link Vrains, and the island of Camp Vrains, and together the two of them head towards her dorm room. Aoi doesn't say another word, but when she leans back into Ema's chest, she feels a heartbeat that matches her own—a strong, valiant, courageous heartbeat. And though Aoi thinks about rushing back to the dragon and fending it off, she grounds herself on the board.

She'll get the dragon another day.


End file.
